// AI perception

Source: Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily

A new study documents the persistence of consciousness essentialism—people deny AI sentience even when its responses are indistinguishable from human ones. This reveals a hard ceiling: "acting human" alone does not generate acceptance. The gap between capability and consumer comfort will constrain how brands deploy AI agents in customer-facing roles. The more convincingly AI mimics human behavior, the more it triggers uncanny valley discomfort or active skepticism rather than trust. Companies betting on AI as a replacement for human interaction face not technical barriers but consumer resistance to granting machines the relational status that builds trust.